Did a Film Version Ever Improve Upon Original?

Lots of talk on the board about The Normal Heart and Jersey Boy. My all time favorite drama is a Torch Song Trilogy, my all time favorite comedy is Gemini, and my all time favorite musical is Nine (OBC with Raul Julia). The film versions of all three of my favorites left me extremely disappointed. My question: has anyone experienced a film version of their favorite Broadway show, drama, musical, or comedy which approximated or even surpassed the original?

Jeffrey does make a good point. There are things that can be done onstage that just don't translate to screen and vice versa. I still think it's impossible to make a movie version of A Chorus Line because the material demands intimacy that can't be achieved on film.

Also, you have to separate performer from the material. Sometimes a stage play is brilliant because the acting lifts the material. You get a different actor in the role and it sinks. (Yes, I'm looking at you Doubt. Meryl and Philip just couldn't make it work.)

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

I think GREASE is actually a such better film than stage show. I'll second Sound of Music.

Wizard of Oz. (Did the stage show come first? I actually don't know!)

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

With both Hair and Grease, you have to realize that the stage version and the movie are two completely different things.

The original stage version of Grease was meant to lampoon the 1950s. The movie did away with that aspect and turned it into a boys meets girl story. I like both for different reasons.

I think the Hair movie improved on the stage show because it made the piece more linear. It focused in more on the people and cut down on the stupid stuff like the Margaret Mead sequence, which I think still is a weak point of the stage show.

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

West Side Story is a winner on film. The juxtaposition of Cool, Gee Officer Krupke and I Feel Pretty. The expansion of America to include the boys....all vast improvements. 10 Academy Awards were richly deserved.

AMADEUS is such a different beast on stage vs. the film, but both are amazing. So, in adaptation, Shaffer and Forman "improved" the play in such a way that works better for the film (the deathbed composition of the Requiem is an utterly astonishing cinematic accomplishment.) However, the "improvements" made for the film are difficult if not impossible to achieve onstage, while the stage script includes so much more direct address and the concept of the audience itself being Salieri's ghosts and confidantes. So I'd call AMADEUS a work that each iteration of is ideal for the form it takes.

Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

West Side Story (I've seen four stage productions and loved them, but the movie trumped them all)

Dinner At Eight

Frost/Nixon

I love the film versions of The Sound of Music and Oliver!, but have never seen them on stage (I am NOT counting the live TV version of TSOM) so I can not vouch for them being improvements. I do prefer their cast recordings to their soundtracks, although not by much.

Oliver is another one that is different on stage and on film. In the film, you have pretty redhead Shani Wallis playing Nancy. She plays it like Gidget having boy problems. Who wouldn't want that life, living in the squalor of the streets of London. Such fun!

If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

The script for DANGEROUS LIASONS is tighter, more compelling, and more devastating than the talky play.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali

I don't believe that a cinematographic version can ever beat the original stage production. As much as I love the sound of music on stage, I just loathe the film. That being said my favourite movie musical has to be Les Miserables. I lost count on how many times I watched it and I personally feel that if you go to see the theatrical production without knowing the story, you won't understand what is going on but if you watch the movie you will understand the show better.